The Migrants’ Files project was launched in August 2013 by a group of European journalists who joined forces to accurately calculate and report the deaths of emigrants seeking refuge in Europe. This pan-European consortium of journalists is partially funded by the European non-profit organization Journalismfund.eu.

They know their lives are at risk, yet each year thousands of people from Africa, the Middle East and beyond — war refugees, asylum seekers and economic migrants — leave their homes and try to reach the promised land of Europe. On the third of October 2013, more than 360 would-be emigrants drowned off the coast of the Italian island of Lampedusa. A catastrophe of this dimension grabbed the media’s attention for a while and won the sympathy of the general public.

In response, later that month, the European Council decided to implement measures aimed at preventing a repeat of such a tragedy at the European Union’s borders .The Council called for strengthening the EU’s border security co-ordination system, Frontex, more formally known as the European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the Member States of the European Union. And the Europe-wide surveillance system Eurosur began operations on December 2, 2013. Thus, once again, a large tragedy spurred real, if belated, action.

Well-intended though they doubtless were, these measures only address the tip of the migration iceberg. Little is known about how many men, women and children actually have lost their lives on their journey to Europe. Believing that policy unsupported by facts cannot be optimal, a consortium of European journalists committed themselves to systematically assembling and analyzing the data on the deaths of Europe’s would-be migrants. The Migrants’ Files project is partially funded by the European non-profit organization Journalismfund.eu.

To know more, please visit: https://www.detective.io/detective/the-migrants-files/